welcome, welcome to day 10 of a season of peace, day 8 of this moon of fleeting in this moment of blessed unrest and great turning… are you wondering about peace on earth when we see so much falling apart, so much suffering? it is said that confusion and uncertainty are the raw materials of wisdom and understanding, that every birth is messy and painful and then once the new creation emerges, our one heart melts and we sing at the frequency of ecstasy, of moving out of the stuckness of turbulence and unrest and into a peace passing all understanding… and so it is…

may the provocations of the outer and inner worlds awaken us more deeply to our seeing provocations as pro vocations impelling us into our vocations, our callings to be who we truly are – rainbow lightwaves of love and peace re-joy-sing that in this moment of presence, in every present moment, peace prevails on earth regardless of the outer dramas…

let us be ambassadors of peace in this moment of eternity, in every moment of eternity humming, re-joy-sing, dancing the anthem of the poetic peace pilgrimage…

“Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be
With earth as our mother
Family all are we
Let me walk with my relative
In perfect harmony Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment
And live each moment
To take each moment
And live each moment
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
Let there be peace on earth
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin
With me”…

blessed bee…

“Remember the clear light, The pure clear white light From which everything in the universe comes, To which everything in the universe returns; The original nature of your own mind. The natural state of the universe unmanifest. Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it. It is your own true nature, it is home.”

~ The Tibetan Book Of The Dead ~

tonight. i so need to tune into the clear light in these moments of feeling a storm rushing in uprooting and overturning the lives of our relatives… with the death and destruction toll rising astronomically in Syria and Turkey, my heart, our one cosmic heart breaks and opens us to re-membering all the disasters, injustices, losses bringing so much suffering to our world…

 in these moments, can we have too many reminders of all the lovingkindness and compassion activated and activating on the planet? in truth, every moment when we tune into the pure light and take heart, take courage, there is more and more compassion flowing throughout the cosmos…

welcome to day 9 of a season of peace, a day of hearing the cries of the world rising in frequency and intensity, a day of feeling the quickening of collective birth pangs, a day of gathering with midwives to co-llaborate on empowering space for encouraging strength to take one more step, to be peacemakers in a world torn asunder, to do what we can to hold the frequency of equanimity and lovingkindness and act from a place of love, the energy holding the universe together…

and, so, i turn now to kuan yin, goddess of compassion, protector of women, children, sailors, fishermen, anyone in trouble, and the sick, disabled, and poor… she who walks the boddhisattva path foregoing enlightenment until all sentient beings are liberated and free from suffering…

according to legend, kwan yin tried so strenuously to alleviate the suffering of all beings that her head split into eleven pieces… buddha awarded her eleven heads with which to hear the cries of the world and when she heard all the cries and reached out to address the needs of so many, her two arms shattered… now, buddha gives her a thousand arms to offer her compassion to all…

may our one heart remain always open being lovingkindness to all and may we all reside in the peace passing all understanding real-eye-sing in these moments of crisis, we have the opportunity to dive deeply into the ocean of being’s inner channel imagining the world of peace, a world within our reach where we no longer squander our energies on blowing up the world; rather, we direct all our energies into mutual aid understanding there is only one of us here, we all belong to each other and well-being for all ensures well-being for each one…

shanti, shanti, shantihi…

welcome to day 8 of a season of peace… come sit with me here in the field out beyond taking in the beauty of this sacred moment of eternity…

it is said it only takes 144,000 sentient beings to hear the call and turn toward el canto hondo, the deep soul song, the dream of the earth to establish a re-newed paradigm of reality singing in the frequency of harmony throughout the ocean of being…

how i love meeting you in this field of what we deeply value, this sacred space of interconnectedness…

here, we witness and celebrate this collective hearing of and following the call to come back home to spirit, to dissolve into spirit, to be so at one with spirit that all borders vanish… we are present as love, the animating energy of all that is, the saving grace that simply opens the door to love… trusting that in this surrendering, this softening, this turning toward pachamama, the unifying spirit breathing all our relatives alive, we are transported to the stillpoint, the place of creation where the dance of the new begins…

in this moment of eternity as we return home to spirit and dissolve into be so at one that all borders vanish between me and thee, we come in gratitude offering our pains and suffering to be used as compost to nourish the earth… we come as love, the animating energy of all that is and knock on the door asking this door to open to love, simply open… in this trusting, this surrendering, this turning we are transported to the stillpoint where the dance begins, yes, we’re coming back… and, we sit with suffering endured this day by the people of Turkey and Syria and with all others whose lives have been overturned and we send them love and stand with all relations in the subtle unitive field where we are one…

“Give light and people will find the way.”

~Ella Baker, Activist~

welcome to day 6 of a season of peace with the moon almost waxing full in this moment of eternity when the night sky lights up just as our days in the north are getting longer and lighter… let us honor this season of emergence our new beginning with our soul’s intention for deepening and expansion… in our new life, we commit our energy to… peace, love and joy thanking beloved for carrying us across the wild deep blue sea of clouds that never die to a shore we cannot see, trusting beloved to transport us into the true refuge of great mystery…

in this moment of new beginnings, of increasing light on the cusp of the full snow moon, as we see and bee a just world of love and peace, let us close this ceremony with a favorite poem about light, this one penned by the poet/painter, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who only wanted to paint sunlight on the walls of life…

~

Instructions to Painters and Poets

“I asked a hundred painters and a hundred poets
how to paint sunlight
on the face of life
Their answers were ambiguous and ingenious
as if they were all guarding trade secrets
Whereas it seems to me
all you have to do
is conceive of the whole world
and all humanity
as a kind of art work
a site-specific art work
an art project of the god of light
the whole earth and all that’s in it
to be painted with light

And the first thing you have to do
is paint out postmodern painting
And the next thing is to paint yourself
in your true colors
in primary colors
as you see them
(without whitewash)
paint yourself as you see yourself
without make-up
without masks
Then paint your favorite people and animals
with your brush loaded with light
And be sure you get the perspective right
and don’t fake it
because one false line leads to another

And then paint the high hills
when the sun first strikes them
on an autumn morning
With your palette knife
lay it on
the cadmium yellow leaves
the ochre leaves
the vermillion leaves
of a New England autumn
And paint the ghost light of summer nights
and the light of the midnight sun
which is moon light

And don’t paint out the shadows made by light
for without chiaroscuro you’ll have shallow pictures
So paint all the dark corners too
everywhere in the world
all the hidden places and minds and hearts
which light never reaches
all the caves of ignorance and fear
the pits of despair
the sloughs of despond
and write plain upon them
“Abandon all despair, ye who enter here”

And don’t forget to paint
all those who lived their lives
as bearers of light
Paint their eyes
and the eyes of every animal
and the eyes of beautiful women
known best for the perfection of their breasts
and the eyes of men and women
known only for the light of their minds
Paint the light in their eyes
the light of sunlit laughter
the song of eyes
the song of birds in flight

And remember that the light is within
if it is anywhere
and you must paint from the inside
Start with purity
with pure white
the pure white of gesso
the pure white of cadmium white
the pure white of flake white
the pure virgin canvas
the pure life we all begin with

Turner painted sunlight
with egg tempera
(which proved unstable)
and Van Gogh did it with madness
and the blood of his ear
(also unstable)
and the Impressionists did it
by never using black
and the Abstract Expressionists did it
with white house paint

But you can do it with the pure pigment
(if you can figure out the formula)
of your own true light
But before you strike the first blow
on the virgin canvas
remember its fragility
and remember its innocence
its original innocence
before you strike the first blow

Or perhaps never strike it
And let the light come through
the inner light of the canvas
the inner light of the models posed
in the life study the inner light of everyone
Let it all come through
like a pentimento
the light that’s been painted over
the life that’s been painted over
so many times
Let it all surge to the surface
the painted-over image
of primal life on earth

And when you’ve finished your painting
stand back astonished
stand back and observe
the life on earth that you’ve created
the lighted life on earth
that you’ve created
a new brave world”

my soul honors your soul/our soul… i honor the place in you/in us where the infinite resides. i honor the light, love, truth, beauty, joy and peace within you/within us…

namaste, beloveds…

welcome to the first day of this moonth of fleeting february, the first day of black history moonth when the family and friends of Tyre Nichols are burying this beloved being beaten to death by the police on his way home and the third day of a season of peace… a moment, a day to begin anew and call in the spirits asking to be with us in these turbulent times as we witness so much collapsing all around us… in this fleeting moment, let us breathe deeply from our earthmother who loves us so as we float along the river of life less traveled… a river inviting our wholehearted presence, our wholebeing essence, our complete trust, our suspending doubt when in places unknown and in uncertain circumstances and travel way into the deepest recesses of the holy vessel, temple of love we are, everything is…

let’s amplify the first day of black history month with re-membering the greensboro sit-in, a courageous moment that grew into a revolutionary movement…

in the late afternoon of Monday, February 1, 1960, four young black men entered the F. W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina where the friends could feel the invisible line of separation between the shopping area open to everyone and the dining area that barred blacks from taking a seat.. they knew, as all blacks in the South did, that stepping over that line might get them arrested, beaten or even killed but all four moved together in silence and sat down at the lunch counter to take a stand…

“It took a few moments for anyone to notice, but the change within the freshmen was immediate. The Greensboro Four, as they would come to be known, had not embarked on a deep study of Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha, his method of nonviolent action, but they experienced the first change it intended to create—a change that takes place within the people taking action. Just as the African American community of Montgomery, Alabama, following Rosa Parks’ arrest in 1955, discovered their power, the Greensboro Four experienced a transformative strength.”

the four students politely asked for service and were refused with the white waiter suggesting they go to the “stand-up counter” and take their order to go, which was the policy for black customers… by now there was no sound in the dining area, the voices of white patrons were hushed with just the clink of silverware audible as the four sat in silence as if they were in friends meeting or at a church service… eventually, a police officer entered the store and spoke with the manager and then walked behind the four students and took out his billy club pacing back and forth behind the activists, hitting his night stick against his hand but he didn’t speak or escalate… the activists began to understand the power they could find in nonviolence as they realized the officer didn’t know what to do, and soon left..

the last person to approach the Greensboro Four on that first day was an elderly white lady, who rose from her seat in the counter area and walked over toward them and sat down next to the four students and told them she was disappointed in them saying, “I’m disappointed it took you so long to do this.”

by simply taking a seat at the counter, asking to be served, and continuing to sit peacefully and quietly, the Greensboro Four paralyzed the store, its staff, its patrons and the police for hours that monday afternoon… when the flummoxed manager announced that the store would close early, the young men got up to leave feeling victorious and would be joined in the coming days by hundreds of students sitting down to take a courageous stand…

let us follow the beautiful examples of Tyre’s mother calling for peaceful protests as the way to honor her son and the elderly white lady and commit our energy to… being there for each other in peace and love trusting in beloved to carry us across the wild deep blue sea to a shore we cannot see, trusting beloved to carry us into the true refuge of great mystery’s unfolding grand design and to act from that grounding in the love we are to create a world of justice…

in this moment of new beginning, will you join me in weaving into now a just world of love and peace? i also invite you to engage in peace and love with daily ultradian healing breaks, sacred pauses to come home, returning to the deep restoring breaths that reset our being back into balance… thousand fold thanks…